Anybody Need a Gun? [Open]

It was clear to Miro that even now the Dragon Slayer didn't fully recognize him. She was just like any other human, looking down on him for what he was. Apparently none of this was that serious but the half-dreamborn disagreed entirely. And despite all that the woman still summoned a beast to her side. The mercenary seemed to think this would be a simple matter. Miro felt the same but in the opposite direction of course. Still for a moment his eyes flashed again ass he borrowed the sight of Anesvullet Dragon. It passed quickly but he was going to be sure to keep every one of their subtle movements in his sight.

"Be sure you won't regret this." Miro spoke simply as he agreed to Holle's invitation to take things outside. This time with no movement on his own part the door to the woman's office was sliced clean in half as a powerful gust of wind sent the one free piece of it flying inward. The weasel had clearly done something though indirectly. But for now he took Holle's sight with another flash of his eyes to watch himself and her movements and turned his back to her before beginning to head out through the less than practical entry way made by half of the door being gone.

Every time I get into the heat of it and have my finger on the trigger, I remember how angry I was.

A field was filled with smoke, the earth scorched if not completely rent apart or decorated with craters. Crimson pools littered about like spilled wine, trails of scarlet telling the tale of Hell found in two individuals. Heavy breathing, teeth gritted and hiding behind a rock with a few firearms left and some loose ammo - recovered Vullets - being collected. How many ribs... Her arms felt like they were on fire, legs shaking and suffering an intense ache... the pain jabbing at her insides and the blood pouring from her mouth was a maelstrom of agony. It took everything she had to not scream, pressed down on all-fours to quickly move when needed once she got everything together. Fuck... Fuck, it hurts!! Tears streamed down her cheeks, her expression growing more and more frustrated in the crying. Motherfucker, this hurts...!! It fucking hurts!!

The loud, bellowing roar of a behemoth sounded. Yet, it was filled with the same misery as her inner voice, radiating a powerful heat from its anguished fury. That heat was matched by the girl who quickly pounded the ground, screaming to get it out once knowing the enemy's location.

I've been doing my best not to get as mad as I did, and not as hurt as I did. Yet...

In the present day, Holle was irritated at the breaking of her door and followed the dreamborn out. The two began fighting in their frustrations and the girl felt the shared heat from years ago boiling like a cauldron - an inferno of vexation. It was all playful sport to her, but Miro had been taking it seriously enough on top of strange magic and techniques that she grew needlessly angrier. Thankfully, this was suppressed for the most part and fought normally with her Vullets against the weasel's Yosenju, a fitting archetype.

Initially, she had been admittedly looking down upon him. It wasn't in a malicious or disdainful manner toward him, more her own arrogance and over-inflated ego. When she couldn't break through his defenses by steady means due to the tricky monster dodging and him peering into her tools, that was enough message that he wasn't just needlessly showing off in the office. "Well, damn, alright." A smirk painted itself, twirling firearms and batting out the mechanical dragons, setting a domain of supply on the field: "Boot Sector Launch". The Dragon Slayer proceeded with an extremely heavy counterattack via buffet of direct attack damage, totaling Miro's advantage in the blink of an eye. The proceeding onslaught came about through spitfiring more Vullets until creating "Varrelguard Dragon". A hulking beast whose arrival was announced by the static shock of violet lightning discharged from underneath her eye-patch. It was ironic to see the Dragon Slayer playing a focus for the very creatures she slays, but the irony was lost in the incredible power of it.

Miro utilized an interesting ability that convinced her that gaudy rich man had left her with a useful partner. With his back to the wall, he had intentionally set himself low to blaze through Varrelguard through a single, near-decisive swing of Yosenju Sabu's blade that ripped through the gun-beast hybrid. It was a gathering of brothers, raising their arms and bending knee to grant power in one sweep. Packing that kind of heat, he would be great to overthrow some deluded dreamborn calling herself a goddess. He even stopped her next attack on the same basis of taking so much damage early.

Though, Holle got excited. Seeing her new colleague show off a strong tool, she retaliated with a flurry of summons and reviving Varrelguard... and letting a gold spark shine in her covered eye. Normally blind in it, it bulged forth behind the eyepatch and twitched violently, loosing more electricity and calling forth-

"Destructive winds that wreck the enclosed world! Break free of your cage!!"

That foe of hers - "Varrelload Dragon" - appeared in a furious shockwave. The mercenary's demeanor took a turn for the aggressive, boasting forceful declarations that Miro's tactics wouldn't work on her now. Varrelload's roar disrupted the winds, blowing one of the brothers away through its booming voice and smashing apart the coming battle response. Though Varrelload's attack had been stopped once, the rampaging dreamborn would absolutely ensure it didn't happen again as the wrath-aura coated Dragon Slayer loaded the Varrels with Vullets. It had been a surprising back-and-forth, but the bout was decided through Varrelload's direct blast that Holle managed to redirect from Miro's body in the nick of time.

"Urgh!!" She gripped control of herself, calming the vortex of ferocity overtaking her body like a tornado and brought a hand to her face, instinctively clutching around her eye. "Okay, point proven...! Fuck OFF!!" Holle hollered at Varrelload, who smashed at the ground and snarled before forcibly banished from the battlefield. "Ungh..." The beast gone, her own frustration dropped back to reasonable levels before fading to calm after some moments of muttering some swearing.

How many times had it been now? How often would Miro work alongside humans, only for them to turn on him for being a half-breed? How many throats had he slit, human and dreamborn alike? These thoughts often stayed in the back of his mind. He had no answers of course for he kept no counts. The Dragon Slayer would simply join the nameless and, with the passage of time, faceless masses the young weasel had slain in his life. Or at least that's what he thought.

As the battle began, things seemed to be mostly flowing by Miro's pace. With his Mystic Eyes he could gather information on what Holle would next use, and his brethren as the called them, the Yosenju, retreated after launching their offensives to evade a barrage of bullets. Miro himself wasn't one to simply take the Dragon Slayer's offensive head on. He wouldn't let a woman like this, one who had so blatantly looked down on him like all the others, leave here alive, of that he was certain.

His verbal jabs from earlier soon fell to the wayside as the woman showed how indeed she was capable of slaying a dragon. The Vullets she used were powerful and would swarm together as easily as the half-dreamborn's Yosenju. The woman put together a powerful offensive and soon the mercenary knew there was only one way to make the human know her place and respect his powers. She had been merely annoyed with his eyes and seen through them fairly quickly. But he had one other power he was confident she could not withstand.

Staring down a line up of four of her powerful monsters, Miro had a means to escape the harm but chose instead to put his life on the line to tap into his deepest power. The assault was terrifying and battered him greatly. The woman seemed incredibly pleased with herself as the army of vullets assembled into Varrelguard. In truth, these direct confrontations were not what he was made for. He had struggled to stand again after the attack. But he would carve into the human's soul exactly why she should fear and respect him.

"I didn't think I'd have to show you this..." he muttered back to her taunts and jeers. And while yet trembling a powerful wind surrounded himself and each of the four Yosenjus he had called to his side: Kamaitachi, Kamanitachi, Kamamitachi and Sabu. The three Kama brothers kneeled and pledged their wind to Sabu, who's sword was held aloft gathering the power of his allies. The winds increased ever more until Sabu was holding a veritable tornado in his own hands.

"In the eye of the storm, a clash of fate..." Miro began as Sabu raised his katana overhead, the tornado growing ever stronger.

"Become my sword that cleaves Heaven and Earth! Yosenju Sabu! Arashi wo Tachikiru!" Miro yelled in defiance of the dragon before him.

"Tear creation asunder!" he declared once more and down Sabu swung his blade, the vortex of wind it carried with it slicing clean through Varrelguard and on through to Holle herself to inflict additional damage. And yet the attack had not finished her one go as he had hoped it would. She still stood, ready to return the favor in kind. Soon Varrelguard returned with Varrelload by its side. The aura this woman had and this connection to this behemoth, surely calling her human wasn't entirely accurate. But even in the face of this beast, Miro refused to fall. His defensive measure he had forgone in the form of Battle Fader stopped the onslaught, allowing the Kama brothers another attempt at victory. And yet, Kamaitachi's wind could do nothing to Varrelload. And as Kamanitachi attempted to bypass the woman's army altogether, Varrelguard managed to destroy it. The weasel could do nothing but reach a limp arm outward as his every last wind subsided and the surviving Kama brothers returned to him.

"So that's it then..." he said, accepting defeat at Holle's hands. He knew Varrelload would kill him. "Father... somehow or other... it was always going to end this way wasn't it?" came the soft words to himself as the dragon's assault was unleashed. Miro closed his eyes and accepted his fate. And yet explosions cascaded down around him but none hitting him directly. The Dragon Slayer vanished had vanished her army after sparing him.

"What are you... why would you...." the half-dreamborn began in bewilderment as he slumped to the ground. The scythe had long since been supporting him but even standing at this point was beyond him.

"Why didn't you kill me?!" he screamed back at her, a first sign of real emotion present in his voice. His face too, carried distress in it to the point he seemed on the verge of tears. He couldn't understand this. He'd lost after threatening her. Were he in Holle's position he would have killed him. "Do you think this is funny? That I should owe you my life all the rest of my days? What greater dishonor could you do me..." he continued in genuine frustration and anguish. His shaking hands slowly tried to move his scythe. If she would not end it then he still could.

The Dragon Slayer shook her head, having had the time to get her bearings together only for the dreamborn to suddenly raise its voice. She let out a confused yelp for half a second, snapped back to reality from her power-induced headache and earring from Varrelload's shouting. Holle found herself annoyed again, though her expression was painted with the same perplexity as it was in the office. Miro was upset and it showed compared to his usual tone of voice, the edge factor fading in some sort of emotional distress. Why didn't she kill him? "What?" An inquisitive response, not at all matching his volume or distraught.

"Funny? I mean, kinda. I said I'd beat your ass after all, but I don't know about the rest of whatever you're on about." With the beast gone and her mind clearing, the subtle anger was fading in full as she waved her hand dismissively, raising a brow in question. "You think this was a life or death thing? That I'm gonna ask for your life or something? I'm just giving you shit, chill out." Her eyes squinted, putting on an exhaustively annoyed expression while keeping an eye on his scythe. His hold holding it was shaking... Did he actually think- ah.

He did think all that, didn't he.

Thinking back to how he talked about humans double-crossing him and how he didn't have any issue with property damage, on top of writing her off so hard and speaking of cutting her down... That was all real to him. "Uh," Holle began, scratching the back of her head and trying to vocally level with him. "No dishonor or anything here, it was really just tossin' hands at each other. Y'know, what some people do when they get riled up sometimes. Thought you were doin' the same."

Miro attempted to process what the Dragon Slayer and the other human were saying. He heard them plainly and yet struggled to comprehend their words. Chill out, no dishonor, just throwing hands, riled up, wouldn't enjoy someone dying? The half-dreamborn's face shifted from distress to one of blank confusion as his mind raced about. These ideas weren't entirely foreign. Among his family, the Himura, he had come to learn that not everything they said was always serious. They did at times simply want to mess around with him and try to get him to smile. Why he hadn't yet entirely grasped. Illegitimate offspring and half-breed that he was, he could only assume they cared very little for him as well. But still there was something. Some semblance of a connection they felt, likely through his father if not himself directly. But these two, they were strangers. They had absolutely no reason to care.

"What are you talking about..." he struggled to say with how his mind was busy running in circles. "You don't even know me." he said pointing to Matt, "you wouldn't mourn me if I died. And you," he said again this time pointing to Holle, "You have every reason to want me out the picture. More gold for you... So why are you..." he trailed off. The mental block still hadn't been overcome. There had to be a trick to it all, it was the only thing that made sense. The Dragon Slayer was just looking to kill him when he wasn't expecting it. But finally a thought was allowed to sit in his mind. What if they were telling the truth?

"You mean it then..." Miro started as if inviting them to deny the truth of their statements. "I need to leave." he stated next. Something was troubling him again. "I would have attempted to kill you if I'd won... a misunderstanding like this... these sorts of things... the Himura name... I can't..." the weasel stumbled over his words. The fatigue and confusion was a dangerous combination. He tried to stand and walk forward which only served to have him face plant into the ground in front of him. There he struggled a moment before propping himself up into a sitting position. He sat there in silence for a moment.

"...What are your names?" he asked of the humans present with him.

"Ah?! Who the hell told you to stop cleaning?!" Holle shouted at the approaching Matt under the assumption that they hadn't been fighting long enough for him to finish. Mind you, she could've been wrong on that given her furious mental state overtaking for the time. The Dragon Slayer didn't seem to understand the mood of these two much. She got that Miro took this seriously under a misunderstanding, but so did Matt given his questions. "Nobody's killin' anybody." She answered, softening her expression and calming the remainder of her nerves.

Tilting her head slightly, she heard Miro having what seemed to be some kind of crisis in his mind. The mumbling very much sounded like he wasn't used to any of this and he wouldn't have just been messing around like she was - he would've killed her! She'd probably be more pissed off about it if she hadn't already won, so she merely shrugged instead. When he asked for their names, she saw little reason to show him they were on some sort of bad term. "Kugel Holle, the Dragon Slayer." The merc put on a cocky grin, properly introducing herself with some confident flair to her tone.

"Lemme tell ya this. You think I wouldn't mourn you if you died, but you were assigned to me as a partner. That's all the reason I need to give a shit, really. And offing partners just to get the whole pay to myself doesn't sit right with me." In her usual vulgar mannerism, Holle's self-styled morals painted themselves again in response to Miro's mental block. Similarly to being unable to look away from Matt's phoenix troubles, she was straightforward enough to not enjoy something so dastardly.

Kugel Holle and Matt Taylor. The names of two humans Miro couldn't hope to understand. Nothing about the situation made any sense to him. But somehow, despite the three being mostly strangers, the humans at least were able to jest with each other. Holle went so far as to the weasel her partner and claimed she wasn't one to stomach partners killing each other. A sort of calm finally took over, and his large fluffy tail began swaying behind him as he sat and simply took the moment in. Somehow these two humans and shown him respect, something he did not think strangers capable of imparting.

"I doubt I'll ever understand you hum-" Miro started but cut himself off. "Holle and Matt." he corrected himself, showing something of the importance in asking in the first place. With a deep breath the half-dreamborn managed to stand again, some strength returning to his body as the storm of his mind settled.

"But regardless of if I can understand why, I can recognize the respect I've been shown. And that much I will reciprocate." Miro stated calmly. He closed his eyes for a moment, the scar over his right eye becoming much more prominent for it, and rested his scythe over his shoulders with the blade pointed toward the ground. When his eyes opened again they possessed their usual serious and pointed intensity from earlier in the office.

"I believe we have a goddess and a phoenix to slay..... p-partner..." the weasel stuttered.

"Of course I have a name, dumbass!" Holle barked, taking the firearm dropped on the ground and prompting whacking Matt upside his head in a comedic, angry outburst. It was one thing to be high up on her reputation, but she wasn't about to let people just pretend she's a title. She stomped around in her frustration, mouth agape in her irritated snarling as if she was going to breathe fire at any given moment. It was hard to share the sentiment of whatever in the world Miro had been through to mold such a demeanor - such low expectations in humans and strangers. People in the mercenary business were far from nice, but... "Bluh." The woman sighed, not grilling into Matt any further and having a good look at what she was working with: a strong, though troubled weasel with an attitude problem who had little issue getting on her nerves... and some kid who looks like he came out of the neighborhood one day with a death wish, intentionally for a target but unintentionally for himself.

Meh, she's had worse.

"Haaugh..." Another sigh, though a more relieved one as she draped an arm over Matt's shoulders and pulled him close. "You two are gonna be a pain, I can tell. Came here with all this baggage... Well, lucky you two, I'm used to annoying pests." Despite that snide shade, she smirked confidently while keeping her eyes on the weasel and looked back at the boy every few moments. "We do have a goddess' ass to beat senseless and some fiery bird to look into, yeah. So if you're done brooding and you're done try'na work my last nerve, I'll pack the rest of my things and be ready in a few hours. Don't skip town at the last second, or I'll kick your ass." Letting of Matt, she turned to make way for her office once more and didn't look back. The respect Miro spoke of and good-nature of the young lad who contrarily looked to commit murder upon a dreamborn... A strange duo that appeared at her doorstep, but a duo she wasn't going to look at differently from others. Their karma didn't seem so bad, after all.

That, and she was going to have a hell of a time picking on the weasel later for that stuttering "partner".